This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Trevar Alan Chilver for his blog Foyer Talk See it in it’s original context here. Seeing Do Not Go Gentle was an experience. Not just because it’s a great show, but because I got the opportunity to meet Patricia Cornelius, the play’s writer, before the show opened. That, and the fact that fortyfivedownstairs is a fantastic venue with more character than a Shakespearean king. Equally admirable were the performances of a fantastic cast, admirably lead by Rhys McConnochie, all bringing their characters to life in a way that should connect with audiences of all ages. Freezing my ...
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This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Anne Marie Peard for her blog Sometimes Melbourne and for AussieTheatre.com. See it in it’s original context here. In 2006 Melbourne playwright Patricia Cornelius won the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and the RE Ross Trust Playwrights award for Do not go gentle… Finally, we get to see a production (thank you fortyfivedownstairs) and the full theatre, longish run and sold out nights are proving that award-winning plays aren’t real until they are produced and shared with an audience. Cornelius uses the metaphor of Scott’s Antarctic expedition (yep, the one that didn’t end well) to ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written byNatasha Boyd for Theatre People. See it in it’s original context here. Submitted by K.E. Weber on Tuesday, 10th Aug 2010 Do not go gentle…grapples with existential questions of love, death, loss, happiness and the lust to live life to its fullest. The intention of former arts broadcaster and writer, Mary Lou Jelbart, who is the founder of fortyfivedownstairs, has been successfully realised in a short space of time and obtained a well deserved reputation as creating a venue that produces a varied range of independent theatre and art space. ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Paul Knox for ArtsHub. See it in it’s original context here. Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. The inspiration for Do Not Go Gentle is Dylan Thomas’ well known poem about the fierce and desperate longing for life that accompanies our last days. Patricia Cornelius has written an examination of the twilight years of five nursing home residents and unexpectedly woven it through the story of Robert Falcon ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Prue Bentley for 774 ABC Melbourne. See it in it’s original context here. Pamela Rabe as Bowen in Patricia Cornelius’ Do Not Go Gentle. Photo by Jeff Busby. We fear the unfulfilled life. In the world as we know it, full of aspiration and glamour, there is something monstrous about coming to our end full of regret. In Do Not Go Gentle, the latest work from Patricia Cornelius puts a group of ageing characters out on the ice to face their lives, their choices and their challenges. And they do it ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Martin Ball for The Age. See it in it’s original context here. Do Not Go Gentle REVIEWED BY MARTIN BALL August 9, 2010 An extraordinary cast Reviewer rating: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars By Patricia Cornelius 45 Downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane. Until August 29. DYLAN Thomas’s famous poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is a passionate clarion call to live life to its utmost, even into old age. Such a philosophy of not going quietly – spelled out in the poem’s refrain, to ”Rage, rage against the dying of ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Alison Croggon for The Australian. See it in it’s original context here. The poetry of age in an uncertain world Alison Croggan From: The Australian August 09, 2010 12:00AM PATRICIA Cornelius’s award-winning play borrows its title from Dylan Thomas’s poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. Perhaps the most beautiful villanelle written in English, Thomas’s poem celebrates the vivid life of old age, pressed hard up against death: “Old age should burn and rave at close of day”. Likewise, Do Not Go ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Andrew Fuhrmann for Crikey. See it in it’s original context here. Photo by Jeff Busby: Malcolm Robertson, Pamela Rabe, Terry Norris and Anne Phelan Dylan Thomas’ famous exhortation that old age should burn and rage at close of day is here filled out with a specific and passionate argument by playwright Patricia Cornelius: the rage against the dying of the light is the rage of memory, of memory projected forward into action, into the renewal or reconsideration of old convictions, into reconciliations, into fresh desires, into affirmations, and ...
Thursday is gnocchi day at Zappa. This little cafe is family owned and have been around for ages. It is a South Melbourne institution. Michael is usually there to greet everyone. “Hi Bella! How are you today?” And I love how this place is decked out. So many memoirs and nic nacs stuck on walls from the past to the present. Photos of family, greeting cards, little notes… all of sentimental value and showcases the history of this little café.
Read the review of Do not go gentle… on Australian Stage Online below. See it in its original context here. Written by Liza Dezfouli Saturday, 07 August 2010 15:20 Left – Terry Norris, Anne Phelan and Rhys McConnochie. Cover – Pamela Rabe and Rhys McConnochie. Photos – Jeff Busby Inspired by those famous words of Dylan Thomas and the story of Captain Scott’s trek to Antarctica in the early 1900s, Do Not Go Gentle by Patricia Cornelius is a beautifully rendered theatre piece. With a variety of dramatic responses to its themes this play gives a lovely sense of what’s possible on ...
This review of Manbeth is from White Whale Theatre’s Captain’s Blog. See it in it’s original context here. I was, I have to admit, a little worried as I made my way down the familiar set of stairs at 45 Flinders Lane last night. The idea of an all-male Macbeth, set in a jail, has some cheesy potential. In theory, it could have been cheesier than a deep fried wheel of King Island Blue Brie. But a number of my most trusted carrier pigeons had informed me that this was not the case. And, I’m happy to ...
The review of Manbeth below is written by Joanna Bowen for Australian Stage Online. See the original review here. Manbeth is a riot of masculinity; within minutes, you can smell the testosterone. This retelling of Macbeth is set in a sparse, prison-like atmosphere, wooden benches the only set pieces. The ensemble moves throughout the space with comfort and confidence, morphing it unrestrictedly alongside their switching characters. The piece is powered by a physicality which amplifies the violence and intensity of the original. The constantly moving bodies climb the chunky struts which support the ceiling, roll, fight, ...
It was the housemate’s birthday and we were geared up to go to Mamasita. But that was not to be as Mamasita was packed with a 2 hour wait at the door and hungry tummies will wait for none, not even a much-hyped about mexican restaurant. So upon K’s recommendation, we headed to Cookie instead. Of course, not having a booking makes things slightly tricky but the waiter who was sporting a spoon and celery in his hair wasn’t fazed in the slightest. Cheerfully, he told us that if we found ourselves a table on the bar side of the room ...
Below is a review of Othello by The Kingsmen, written by Liza Dezfouli for Australian Stage Online. See the original review here. Othello | The Kingsmen Written by Liza Dezfouli Thursday, 10 June 2010 11:02 The geometric 90s looking set design tell you immediately that you’re in for something new and different with this production of Othello. The windows of the theatre space at 45 Downstairs are festooned with tapes of black and primary colours, suggesting the bars of a prison, the narrow window openings of a castle, or the timbers of a ship. Lighting is simple and there are few props. The action ...
I jumped onto the chance for a Nuffnang fashion and food bloggers meet up at the Langham for a chocolate breakfast! It was quite early on a Saturday morning but I jumped out of bed even before my alarm went off. Now that is commitment to chocolate. Langham is located in Southbank and just a hop and skip across the Yarra River from Flinders Street station. It was a rather cold and foggy winter morning and I am thankful that there is a hint of blue skies when I took this photo.
Review of Open Water by Rebecca Jones, written by Bernadette Alibrando and published on the Walk to Art blog: I’ve decided that I am drawn to drawing and, of late, have been viewing drawing exhibitions and hanging out in drawing studios: Exhibition confirms a rebirth in drawing and works on paper In love with drawing and works on paper Maybe it’s the spontaneous mark making or the fact that it hasn’t been re-painted or re-worked over and over again. “Open Water”, an exhibition by Rebecca Jones currently on at fortyfive downstairs, in Melbourne, is a beautifully example of a well put ...
Review from Arts Hub, written by Shelley Blake: One of history’s most famous apparent betrayals has been brought to the Melbourne stage in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s 1995 production The last days of Judas Iscariot – and it seems quite fitting that a company called Human Sacrifice Theatre would be the ones to bring it home. After all it is a tale about sacrifice and redemption, isn’t it? The production, now playing at Fortyfive downstairs, is cleverly crafted and set in the court room of “down town” purgatory. The case, God and the kingdom of heaven and ...
The below review of A Shrine for Orpheus is from Art Blart, written by Marcus Bunyan: Bees, books, bones… and biding (one’s) time, attaining the receptive state of being needed to contemplate this work. This is a strong, beautiful installation by Pip Stokes at fortyfivedownstairs that rewards such a process. What is memorable about the work is the physicality, the textures: the sound of the bees; the Beuy-esque yellowness and presence of the beeswax blocks; the liquidness of the honey in the bowl atop the beehives; the incinerated bones, books and personal photographs; the tain-less mirrors, the books dipped in beeswax; the ...
Read the review below or on the Oz Baby Boomer’s website. Review by Prue Bentley: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by David Myles Human Sacrifice Theatre | fortyfive downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne | Until 30 May Alarm bells start ringing when you discover there’s a cast of 20. They really begin to get going when you find out you’re about to see a cast of 20 play in a small theatre, for THREE hours. And it really goes all Saint Peter’s on you, after reading that it’s “loosely based on” The Bible. In normal circumstances this could see the ...
Reviewer Cameron Woodhead May 15, 2010 Review published in The Age The Last Days of Judas Iscariot By Stephen Adly Guirgis Human Sacrifice Theatre fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, city, until May 30 BETWEEN heaven and hell, there’s courtroom drama. With The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis – a writer for NYPD Blue and The Sopranos – takes us into a theatrical retrial of Jesus’ betrayer. Human Sacrifice Theatre has assembled a huge cast (the play has more than 20 characters, and there’s no doubling up) to deliver an ambitious, probing and diabolically entertaining production. Heard in purgatory, the case is presided over ...
Review of The Rabble’s Cageling by Alison Croggon, originally posted on her blog, Theatre Notes: Few poets write of desire with such passionate delicacy as Federico García Lorca. Lyric, erotic and savage, his poems celebrate the anguish of absence, the bittersweet longing for what cannot be possessed. When he writes of his home city Granada, he imagines an ideal beauty, the “spiritual colour” which Andalusia woke within him. This beauty exists within and beyond the “poor cowardly city”, the “miser’s paradise” that contains “the worst bourgeoisie in all Spain”, of which he wrote bitterly only months before he was shot dead ...
Review by John Bailey posted on his website, Capital Idea: The Rabble’s production of Cageling at fortyfivedownstairs has sold out which is great news for independent theatre in Melbourne (is it me or has there been an unusual number of similar sellout seasons in 2010?) It’s a reimagining of Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba with some pretty bold imagery and directorial choices, but for me it was marred for a few reasons I’ll get to eventually. The great Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca’s most enduring contribution to the arts must surely be his concept of duende, an idea with ...
Menya was our first stop. It is a very small ramen shop located on the busy footpath corridor area of Melbourne Central. As the place was really tiny, the group was spilt into 2 tables. I didn't mind too much with the ramen here. @cloudcontrol was not impressed and I believed he gave this place a low score. I had the Menya ramen. I gave it top marks for toppings. I thought it was good value for money at $10.90 and we were given a prawn, a scallop, crab sticks, cuttlefish, an egg and a couple of pieces of chasu.
We have not visited Coconut House after its recent renovation. We walked past it several times as we head to Rose Garden at times for lunch. Coconut House is hardly empty. It is always buzzing and I think even more so after its renovation. What caught my eye that fateful Saturday was the poster of a bowl of wonton noodles. I must have it. A little queue won't kill right? Both of us have a soft spot for cendol and was please to find it on the new menu. The Coconut House Cendol Special was served with soya bean and gula ...
Exhibition dates: 19th March – 18th May 2010 . Curated by Mark Feary, this is a deliciously ironic exhibition that asks the audience to question the social and political construction of the blockbuster exhibitions regularly held by large museums around Australia; to question the role of the curator in assembling such exhibitions; and to question the cultural value of permanent collections of ‘Masterpieces’. Autumn Masterpieces displays work that is anything but permanent and undermines the process whereby museums construct frameworks for social understanding. The work, displayed in a roped off space on plinths of various heights, in cheap frames and at skew-whiff ...
